Communications Officer

• Permanent position, 4 - 5 days per week
• Salary: £25,000 - £30,000 pro-rata FTE (based on experience)
• Start date: Mid-May (or as soon as possible)
• Office: Urban Innovation Centre, London, EC1R 0BE (will be in the office two days a week when guidance allows)
• Deadline for applications: Midday 6 April (with interviews 13-15 April)

ABOUT YOU

As our Communications Officer, you will be passionate about the Public Practice mission and motivated by the prospect of becoming involved in a small, dedicated team working to change perceptions and experiences of public sector planning. You will be comfortable joining a collaborative team, working to quarterly deadlines and goals, creative and eager to learn as the organisation grows.

We are open to applicants with a range of skills and backgrounds, but for this role, we will be looking for and assessing candidates on the following:

• Ability to produce high-quality graphic digital content
• Excellent using Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, After Effects, Microsoft Office and Google Suite to produce accessible content and materials
• Aptitude in writing engaging copy for social media, content and event materials
• Eager to gain more experience in digital marketing
• Interest in the built environment industry
• Enthusiasm for developing an inclusive and diverse public planning sector

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Public Practice is committed to being an equal opportunities employer and we value the diversity of perspectives that people from different backgrounds bring to our work. We positively encourage applications from eligible candidates regardless of age, disability, gender identification, ethnicity, race, religious belief, or sexual orientation. If you feel that you have something to offer but are not sure whether you fulfil the person criteria, we would strongly encourage you to contact us at work@publicpractice.org.uk to explore whether it could be right for you.

WORKING AT PUBLIC PRACTICE

Public Practice is an early-stage not-for-profit social enterprise with strong leadership and governance. You will be working with a high-profile Board chaired by Jules Pipe, Deputy Mayor of London. We are based in central London, currently in the Urban Innovation Centre in Clerkenwell, in the heart of London and provide a generous 30 days holiday per annum (FTE) exclusive of bank holidays. We also provide a 4% employer’s pension contribution, a healthy staff training budget, personal wellbeing budget, regular social events with our Associates and Alumni and a supportive team environment.

YOUR ROLE AS OUR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

As our Communications Officer, you will be designing, capturing, editing and coordinating our external digital content (newsletters, videos, social media, presentations) and using your graphic skills to illustrate and format our resources and external publications. You will have access to external advice and support on our overall communications strategy and identity, with your goal being to maintain and deliver the strategy in-house, playing an active role in ensuring high-quality content, supporting the team deliver our placement programme and helping to lead the way in changing perceptions of public planning through our content and digital media campaigns.

The core responsibilities of this role will be to:

• DESIGN & PUBLISH ACCESSIBLE ONLINE PROGRAMME MATERIALS (40%): Working with the team you will help produce recruitment materials, illustrations, course handbooks, edit course videos, develop cohort google-sites and help publish our practical guides and resources. You will use Word, Google forms, sheets, docs and video editing software to ensure all our materials are adaptable, accessible and as user friendly as possible.
• COORDINATE AND PRODUCE ENGAGING SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT (25%): You will be responsible for coordinating, writing and publishing all our social media content for our online channels and platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn and potentially other platforms) using Adobe Creative Suite to create quality graphics and your writing skills to produce engaging and impactful copy to go alongside.
• PRODUCE IMPACTFUL DIGITAL COMPANY CONTENT (25%): You will edit and publish our monthly newsletter via Mailchimp and regularly produce and edit website impact stories, videos, images, blogs and news, intelligently helping to improve our SEO rankings. With the support of colleagues, you will help promote our public and industry-focused event series via third-party platforms such as Eventbrite, making sure we attract as wide and diverse an audience as possible.
• MAINTAIN COMMUNICATION PACKS AND REPORT ON COMMUNICATION ANALYTICS (10%): Reporting quarterly to our Board and Partners on the impacts of our digital communications campaigns you will regularly review data to help refine our content and SEO strategies. In addition, you will regularly produce communication packs, briefings and slide decks for our team, programme members, Partners and Board to use when presenting and advocating for Public Practice to new audiences, intelligently gathering testimonials and storytelling content.

Alongside these specific individual objectives, as a matrix-based organisation, all team members also take shared responsibility for:

• SUPPORTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY: Alongside presenting and reporting to our Board on your specific area of responsibility, all team members help input into the wider organisational strategy and new business developments.
• YOUR OWN ADMINISTRATION: As a small and relatively flat structured team, we each take on the administration and database management linked to our key areas of work ensuring we continue to work in the most efficient ways.

YOUR FIRST SIX MONTHS IN THE ROLE

Within the first six months as our Communications Officer, you will have:

• Supported the production and delivery of our next social media campaign.
• Developed and improve inclusive visual communications throughout our recruitment processes.
• Designed illustrations and helped format and publish at least ten new resources, from template spreadsheets, case studies, checklists and reports full of graphs.
• Taken on the responsibility of coordinating and sending our monthly newsletters.
• Attended numerous meetings with our communications agency to discuss our 2021/22 communications strategy and its delivery.
• Worked with colleagues to produce engaging new digital content from Associate Placement Stories to short blog articles.
• Reviewed current website materials, updated SEO tags and actively input into a website design and development sprint.
• Participated in our R&D Fridays and helped produce graphics for our Public Discussion, open evening and Autumn 2021 Forum events.
• Improved the accessibility of our digital content and updated our video content and Vimeo pages.
• Reported to our Board on the engagement statistics of our digital channels.
• Attended a number of professional training days and developed your own personal development plan.